During construction of an oil or gas well, a drill string having a drill bit bores through earth, rock, and other materials to form a wellbore. The drilling process includes, among other things, pumping drilling fluid down into the wellbore, and receiving return fluid and materials from the wellbore at the surface. Part of the well construction process includes incorporating casing and production tubing into the wellbore. Casing supports the sides of the wellbore and protects components of the well from outside contaminants. The casing may be cemented in place.
After the wellbore reaches a certain depth, drilling equipment may be removed from the wellbore, leaving an extended open hole. An isolation barrier may be formed in the wellbore's extended open hole. The isolation barrier may include cement. The “waiting-on-cement” (WOC) time is the time required for cement slurry used to produce the isolation barrier to thicken to a prescribed point. In an example, the WOC time is the time required for cement slurry to thicken enough to produce a compressive force of 500 pounds-per-square-inch (PSI). For some types of cement slurry, the WOC time may be about 33 hours.
During the WOC time, other activities cease. Accordingly, extended WOC times can delay completion of the well and can increase the cost of completing the well.